about

On The Cinnamon performs pop music with melodic ease. Their sound is clear and clean, but never intrudes upon you: they sweeten and heat you up at the same time.

However, cotton-soft sensibility is not the only mood evoked in the Umeå quartet’s debut album: a noticeable temperament flows through all of the nine songs. The group’s style conveys, and emphasizes, the tension that arise between caution and forward movement.

It should be said: On The Cinnamon is a sensitive, tightly cooperative band. Jonas Lindsköld is the undesputed leader figure, being the singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. But his compositions and peacefully, restrained voice is embedded in a congenial way by the nuanced accompaniment from the other members. Per Ericson’s inventive guitar playing fills out the sound, while Kristoffer Fredrikssons drums and Patrik Ågrens base gives speed and shape to the whole.

You can hear that the recording process originates from safeguarding an unconstrained live sound. No parts have been polished down to anonymity, no nifty overproduced tricks challenge the listener’s patience. Yet you have a balanced and vibrant record, safely held together by delicate harmonies and timbres.

Additionally, the record raises historic, musical associations of extremely agreeable kind: “Crumbles” alludes to Simon & Garfunkel’s more bittersweet moments. “Indecency ” is an excellent piece of hazy Americana-pop, right in the neighborhood of Beachwood Sparks. “Hibernates” sends out minor altcountry-vibes and elsewhere you can sense a long-distance relationship with Neil Young’s earliest solo work. Jonas Lindsköld’s vocal style and diction lies, consciously or not, close to the timid and grayed indie represented by The Clientele.

But other interpretations and references are of course possible – On The Cinnamon doesn’t impose their ideas on the listener at any moment. What the band is doing, however, is creating its own imprint with tools that are well known. And that is certainly admirable in itself.

Henrik Lång, music reviewer
Umeå, March 27, 2014

credits

released May 3, 2014

1. Crumbles (3:13)
2. On Their Last Day Together (4:51)
3. 71 Steps (4:02)
4. Seas Of The Sun (2:33)
5. Hibernates (5:19)
6. Indecency (4:07)
7. When Are You Gonna Come Home (4:51)
8. She Leaves Work Early (6:31)
9. Traffic Lights (4:01)

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Come meet me south of the border
Be sure you dress up fine
Leaving must be a solemn thing
For those you left behind

You left home and stove and crumbles
Kitchen sink gone dry
Apron stained with all kinds of tears
From an insignifigant wife

Tell me, did he hit you
Like he hit you in my dreams?
Or is he just as sweet and lovable
As he seems?

Oh what a beautiful night
Stars seem so bright
Oh if you saw me now
Saw me through the light
Make me a promise
That you will keep
If you ever need to leave me
Do it while I sleep
If you ever need to leave me
Do it while I sleep

Track Name: On Their Last Day Together

On their last day together
Skies opened and wet their feathers
And I saw them in the rain
They looked so different
But still the same
And there was something else
About them that was strange

On their last day together
He said "You have met an other
The way he makes you smile
I haven't even seen you smile in a while"
She couldn't look him in he eye
She knew her eye wouldn't lie

On their last day together
He realized there was no more eachother
No more holding hands
No Somerset strolls across the sand
No more love in the air
No loving him, no loving anywhere
And nothing left to say
But he said it anyway

On their last day together
She packed her bags and called her brother
And soon she was gone
Before he knew what was really going on
And his tear wet the rain
Let the rain feel his pain

Track Name: 71 Steps

71 steps to your door
I've never been this close before
Think I got a taste of the love of my life
Passed you in the street, didn't realize

Now I'm here
And you're mine
Weeks ago
I was fine
Now I've lost
My sense of time

As we reach for the highest peak
Seek deconstruction that all lovers seek
Then you turn to me and you give me light
Under the table in the middle of the night

Twist and turn
Rise above
A silent drug
That's in my blood
Try to get
Hold of your sun

71 steps to your door
I've never been this close before
Opened up my heart and let you in
Maybe there will be others
But they will never win

Secret tables calling for us
Distant islands calling for us
Now I know what I have lost
Now I know what I have lost
Now I know what I have lost

Track Name: Seas Of The Sun

Far beneath the red light square
Night has paused and there is air
Fallen dreampiles lies around
Cotton buds and an indian drum

Play that drum and you are lost
In seasoned illness, filled with rust
Silenced mouth begins to shout
Thoughts we really can't be without

No, saddle your crow, we're gone
Gone into the seas of the sun

Saddle your crow, we're gone
Gone into the seas of the sun

Track Name: Hibernates

She plays
With words and phrase
Tries to speak
But hibernates

She roams
In zero point wind
Disappears within
Slush and fire

She lost track the minute she was born
Left for dead and desire

She saw the cradle
She saw the wine
She saw the genie
Trapped inside
Take him to a special place
Where no one else will go
Bury him
And no one else will know

I played it safe
Lost the fight
Lost my air
All the might

I roam
In zero point wind
Disappears within
Slush and fire

Made peace with the demons and the clowns
Told them that they were right

I saw the cradle
I saw the wine
I saw the genie
Trapped inside
Take him to a special place
Where no one else will go
Bury him
And no one else will know

Track Name: Indecency

Indecency
Caught my eye
And nothing else matters somehow
I fade away, disappear
Reappear
Close to your ear
Cover you with kisses and kings
No one hear what the nightingale sings
But me

Stopped life
Parked a dream
Blinded by the cream
Of the crops
Of the fruit drops
That pour down from your eyes
Cover up
All the lies
And flushes them down the drain

True love
It hides
In the corner of unprepared eyes
Seem to surface
When it's ripe
Then it comes into light
Kind and decent
Or violent, strong
And God it's not
Right or wrong

Track Name: When Are You Gonna Come Home?

Morning comes again
Surprise me once again
Caught me sleeping
Pull me back

I try to see things
From a different view
Try to picture
Life without you

When are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?
When are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?

You turn your head
In the same old way
What things matter to you
Anyway?

And when are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?
When are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?

I push up daisies
Or leave them dry
Think i's amazing
To watch them die

And when are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?
When are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?
When are you gonna come home?
When are you coming home?

Track Name: She Leaves Work Early

She leaves work early
Ties a bow in her hair
She rides her bike
To a late anywhere
Where her friends have gathered
A captain starts to sing
He sings so loud and clear
It'll make your ears ring

She sings with him
Let out the sorrow she feels within
I stand beside her
Don't know nothing

There's lady chameleon
She makes what she wears
Tonight it's her mama's dress
Made of a million hairs
And a wooden handbag
Is all that she needs
To get to do beautiful
Unspeakable deeds

And she will exceed
Your most beloved and wildest dreams
Bu she's hooked up
It seems

To a singer
In a rock n' roll band
Who wears a cap
And got pockets with sand
He dreams of chameleons
To be famous someday
And to sing his songs
In new, mindblowing ways